"Absolutely," he said. "The more punishment they get for doing cruel acts to animals, the happier I am. I'd like to administer some punishment myself, but that's not the way it is."

He used to be an Albertville police officer, and said many in law enforcement do not realize what they can do, as far as immediate action, when they see animal cruelty

"The tendency is to push it off on animal control," McGee said.

"Police officers have a right to act on animal cruelty just like any other state law. So maybe that will be part of it and police will take it on themselves, rather than call animal control or the Humane Society, they'll act and make arrests or whatever needs to be done."

He said the final responsibility will be on the courts, and said judges who like dogs tend to impose harsher sentences than those who don't care as much about animals.

He hopes punishments will be consistent and severe.

House Bill 27 would punish aggravated animal cruelty the same as dogfighting, with two to 20 years in prison and up to five-thousand dollars in fines.